I Am From Horizon School

Apparently, the Karang Guni trait is not the ONLY.. ahem.. thing he inherited from me. Sigh...

The other day, I told Ace we had to go to the supermarket to buy some veggies as i needed some more long beans to make my veggie curry. And that was when I picked him up from the school bus. I gave him the option of going immediately or going after he has his snack and since he was hungry, he opted to go after his snack.

Anyway, it was a monday and so he was in his PE attire which is just white t shirt with white pants. Apparently the school uniform shop ran out of PRINTED shirts with thier school logo and the children have taken to wearing just white tshirts... So I told him as it was a quick errand, there is no need to change out of his clothes.. since there was no school logo...

"But, then people will know I am wearing a uniform..." he insisted. I repeated that there was no logo and no one is going to KNOW that he is wearing a uniform or that he is from Horizon School and after thinking for a few seconds.. he happily said, "Ok..." and then instead of proceeding to wear his shoe, he took out a pencil and a piece of paper and started doodling..

WHen I walked closer to see what he was drawing, he proudly showed me this sign that he makes.. It says, "Horizon School, HS" and has Ace's big smiley face on it.

"Why are you drawing this?" I asked him.

"I want to bring this out so that everyone knows that I am from Horizon School..." he beamed proudly. Just seconds ago, he was worried that people might know this is a uniform and now he is happily telling the whole world he is from Horizon School with a home made sign? Dunno what this boy is thinking man...

Anyway, I let him be lor.. so he walked around with this sign in front of him like a cuckoo... HAHA!

At least though, I think he is very proud of his school.. wahahaha..

So what has this got to do with inheriting anything from me?

You see.. when I was 14 or 15, I was made school prefect and to me, that was like the greatest honour. I really treasured my prefectorial badge and even wanted to be on duty and for people to know I am prefect even when I am "off duty" after school hours... so much so that when my mum wanted to bring me to the market to buy something... I secretly pinned my prefectorial badge on the pocket of my skirt... WAHAHAHAHA!

Okie.. at least i was subtle lor.. not carrying a big sign and walking around grinning like a cuckoo.. even though to be honest, if i saw someone doing the same thing now.. I would also think that person is out of her mind.. wahahahaha;)

Anyway, I think it is a good sign that Ace really loves Horizon School. While I am so happy that he loves his school and I think it is his good fortune to have found such a school and to enjoy his early years in such a happy, relaxed environment (instead of the stressed environment in Singapore), I do long to go back to Singapore. But when I think of how happy he is, I think maybe.. just maybe.. it is ok to stay on for a little while longer so that Ace can enjoy a little longer...

That being said, whenever I read email from friends, see pictures of singapore food.. i still miss home.... writing this here made me actually miss my mum... and I had a long sleepless night....

Previous Post: Karang Guni Ace

Karang Guni Ace

The other day, I was lying down with Ace in our usual bedtime ritual of"talking" and he was telling me that they have started to decorate a part of their class with christmas things... because christmas is coming soon.

As christmas is a huge festival in the UK, part of their class has been transformed to a mini xmas corner. On top of that, they will also be having a christmas performance on the last day of school (and Ace gets a non speaking part as a christmas bauble.. you know the shiny round things tat hang on trees?:P He was actually quite disappointed that he did not get a speaking role and asked me why his teacher did not give him a chance... I told him he has to practice and have better pronunciation if he wants a chance to perform with more lines and I must say he has been reading beautifully now;))

Anyway, so after we talked about the christmas play and christmas decorations, Ace suddenly said to me, "Mummy, did you see what I have in my bag? You know hor, today my teachers went to Daiso and they bought many things to decorate the christmas tree.... And after that they wanted to throw all the things away because they didn't need it anymore but I told them I don't want to throw it, I want to bring it home... because it is so pretty you know mummy..."

And true enough, after he had fallen asleep, this mummy went to his bag and found THIS:

Wah lau eh, why is my son a karang guni man?

Very sad to say, I think he must have inherited this trait from me... cos I am the everything keep and Max is the everything throw person in the family.

Oh well, maybe we could recycle these into bookmarks or wat:)

Previous Post: Singapore Deli

Singapore Deli

Since Max went to Dubai to work, I have been doing my research.. and I found out that there is this cafe in Dubai called Singapore Deli. But so far, since my last visit last year till now, I havent had a chance to visit it.. reason being that Max said that the food is both expensive and not nice.. even though.. we actually stay like a 5 minute drive away from it and it is right beside the veg stall we frequent often for our weekly grocery shopping....

Anyway, my malaysian and singaporean friends have been telling me that the lontong there is very good.. so max and I decided to go and give it a try....

Wah.. NASI LEMAK!!!!

Char kway tiao!!!!!

And the one we have been eyeing on---- Lontong!

Ace was initialy upset tat we were eating here (cos you know how atas he is.. everyday he also wants to eat Sino Chai one..) and so when he was told there is Milo Dinosaur, he dam happy lor:)


I looked around and behind us, there was this wall filled with photos... as part of the decor for the cafe.. what i cannot understand though is this--- if this is Singapore Deli, why are the photos showing pics of pple holding a Malaysian flag?????

Als0, I noticed that the cafe is playing some MTV... malay songs I presume from seemingly a malaysian or indonesian channel... harlow..... are singaporeans only made up of malays? Hai..... But I guess there aint many Chinese Singaporeans here in dubai and they are really not here often enough for them to play Jolin Tsai or Jay Chou's MTV.. But I think it might be nice if they played like stefanie sun.. or Olivia.. hahahah:)

Anyway, I guess most people here feel the way I do here... In Singapore.. Malaysians are our (most of the time) friendly neighbours... but here in Dubai.. Malaysians are people from the same hometown as us.. maybe we just belong to a different state.. you know.. like during those times before Singapore regained independence?:P wahahaha... I heart my malaysian friends here.. they are mostly jovial, funny and super friendly and warm... (I love the Singaporeans as well as they are also a very jovial bunch...)

Here's Ace acting like a dinosaur because he is drinking Milo Dinosaur.. wahahaha:)


My sedap Lontong!

Ace's char kway tiao!

Max's Tauhu Goreng:)

It was a very filling meal.. I think once in a blue moon when we need our local food fix, we can come again or..cos after all, it is quite pricey.. But the lontong is not bad lah:) But still not as nice as Singapore one.. wahahahahahah:)

PS:
On a side note... another failure at my attempt to make carrot cake.. I discovered finally that I kenna conned! The chinese supermart tat I bought my flour from put the flour in a ziplop bag with a white tag and a english word "rice" written on top with pen.. there were no chinese words as well.. so I assumed it to be rice flour..

But because I failed twice and cannot possibly be failing again with another good recipe.. something my fren commented on FB struck me. You see, when i made my first attempt of chai tou kway, it was soft and sticky and I made it into muah chee and one of my frens who cooks often asked me, "Isn't muah chee made with glutinous rice flour?"

Since my second try also gave me a gluey kway, my conclusion is that what I bought is not rice flour but glutinous rice flour! Dam! Heng my son loves to eat muah chee... so he finished up the second batch for me as well...

I looked at the flour and think it looks like the type of flour we use to make dumpling.. so all the more suspect is glutinous rice....

Went back to chinese supermart last week and tried to find rice flour and noticed that both chinese supermarts i go to only sell glutinous rice flour! All the more confirmed is the wrong flour... TMD!

So where it the world do I get rice flour leh? I searched for long time and found a "rice powder" in carrefour. I hope it means RICE FLOUR.. normal rice... anyway, I just buy to try lah... I havent tried to make kway with it yet but I certainly hope I will succeed the next time I try:)

If that doesnt still work, nim peh is going to grind my rice into flour with my U-like Blender lor!

But that would be a while.. cos anyway, Max went to SGP for work and so i asked him to buy from NTUC the kway tat is already made one.. wahhaha:) woohoo.. cai tao kway, here we come!


PPS: My chai tow kyay has arrived from Singapore.. woohoo!!!
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PPPS: I was inspired though by the Singapore Deli Nasi Lemak picture to try to make my own nasi lemak chilli! Tastes good!!!

Previous Post: Night Walk By The Creek

Night Walk By The Creek

Max says the weather is really good now and since he shifted office, he has been home rather early and so one night, we decided that we will all go for a walk around the creek... Ace was mighty excited and even wanted to wear his policeman jacket lor.. i dunno what gave him the idea that this jacket is windproof and will keep him warm lor.. wahahaha...

Just like 5-10 min away from our house, you can see this beautiful scenery....

This is the Dubai Creek. It is like the Singapore River but it is a creek.. not a river... (dun ask me wat is the difference lah.. i dunno.. you can google for it if you want.. haha) anyway, one of the tourist attractions here is this Dhow Cruise.. where you eat dinner on board a boat on the creek.. So this stretch that we are walking along is where these boats are parked.. we saw a really beautiful boat and everything is glass lor.. so pretty! From outside looking in.. it looked so.... cosy.. so beautiful...

It is called the Bateux... But leh, Max says his colleague says tat even though it looks nice right... but when you are inside.. because the lights are bright inside and it is dark outside, you cannot raelly see the scenery outside.. so tat is bad lor...

But we took pic of menu for reference anyway.. and to our surprise, they have alot of vegeterian selections.. yipee!

Here's a close up of the inside...

The rest of the boats are more like this one here.. brightly lit with lights...


Ace posing next to a statue tat we saw... notice his white shoes? Those are the shoes he wears for school PE. According to Ace, they are his sports shoes.. so he has to wear them whenever he is going to walk alot or do exercise.. so leh, he insisted on wearing them when we said we are going for a walk.. wahahaha...


And then we saw this strange one with NO dinner tables..just sofas all around.. I guess it is for just chilling out together or wat...

Anyway, it got quite cold and Ace complained that he was tired.. so we turned around and walked back home:)

All in all, a very pleasant experience and I told Max we should do this more often. But my son quickly said, "I don't like to walk.. very tiring.. I dun want to do this anymore..."

PS: This little boy hor.. walk half hour slowly also NEED to drink 100 plus.. 100 plus is mostly sugar lor! Heng he is willing to share one can among three of us...

Previous Post: Superman!

Superman!

The very boh liao father and son play until no game to play right.. so one decide to be superman.. and the other one decide to be the "assistant" to show off superman's strenght.. wahahhaha







Previous Post: Jelly!

Jelly!

If you read this blog regularly, you know that Ace loves all things sweet... and other than things like sweets and ice cream, like most other children (my fren's daughter detests sweet things to the extent it is difficult to feed her sweet cough syrup), Ace loves jelly too...

Before we left for Dubai, Popo bought two packets of koniyaku jelly mix and passed it to us to bring to Dubai so that her favourite grandson will get to eat jelly even though he is far far away in Dubai..

But somehow or rather, we havent gotten around to making any jelly and whenever popo is on skype, she asks if we have made the jelly...

Since Ace had a one week term break, I decided that we will make jelly during his term break:)

We took out that rambutan can we bought many moons ago from an indonesian minimart and started making our jelly...

Ace was of course very excited but really... beyond helping to cut open the packet and stirring... he couldnt do very much...:) wahahahaha...

I only brought two racks of mould. So I had to improvise with my heart shaped ice cube holders and my lock lock container.. wahahaha...



And once the jelly is set and the pot has cooled down, it is time for Ace's favourite activity-- eating jelly off the pot and the ladle. I do think tat since this jelly is white in colour, it looks a little like he is eating mucus.. wahahahahah...


Every little last bit is NOT wasted.. wahahaha..

Anyway, surprisingly, it took us close to a week to finish the jelly we made.. partially because I rationed his jelly to him as I dun really want him to eat so much at one go.. so he gets 2-3 pieces everyday:)

I found some lychee cans while supermart shopping today.. now i know where to get the "ingredients" to make our next batch of jellies:) woohoo!:)

PS: Today, something very pleasant happened. I intended to make ABC soup since Max was not around and so brought Ace to the supermarket to buy a potato. While we were in the lift, my son stared at me with adoration and said, "You are very beautiful, mummy..." Wah.. made my day man...:) wahahahah...

Previous Post: Dubai Mall Again

Dubai Mall Again

Since we still had much of the holiday left after our visit to the souk, we decided to visit Dubai mall again to watch the fountain... I finally got a nice photo of this building.. I have always tot that this looked nice but I never got a chance to take a nice photo of it..:)


Today, the sky is really beautiful so I see beauty everywhere we drive past.... it's a wonderful day:)

And finally, like the Virgin sign says... "WE ARE HERE!"

Look at what we found in Marks and Spencers!? Very very tempting!!!!!! Each bottle is about 17 aed.. which is about maybe $6 sing dollars..

I contemplated buying this tooo SINGAPORE laksa paste leh..... even thought of buying it as a bd gift for one of our singaporean friends here.... UNTIL i read the sign that says "MADE IN UK".

I mean, not tat I am biased but hor, after a bad experience at a Dim sum restaurant here called Ping Pong (which is from UK but claims to serve aunthentic dim sum) but served us HORRIBLE food.. my take on that experience is that UK pple have a very different sense of wat tastes good from us.. so when they say Made in UK, i think tat it means it is tasty to UK pple but not necessarily tasty to me:) wahahaha.. so in the end din buy...

Anyway, reminders of home seems to be everywhere lor.. look at what we found here-- PAPA ROTI!:) And the arabic people loved it lor.. there were so many pple sitting down at the Papa Roti cafe and eating roti with a coffee:)

As it is a holiday, there is alot of activities for children.. Ace queued up for a balloon.. and we saw this really good face painter and asked him to get his face painted but he didn't want to.. instead he went to pose with thsi policeman 3D cut out:) cute or not?:P


They also have art and craft to make picture frames... And Ace wanted to do that but there was such a long queue.. the only thing tat din have a queue is the traditional games section where they got the kids to play hopscotch and roll a tire with just a stick.. Since Ace played with hopscotch before, he was more intrigued by the wheel and stick game... hahahaha...


As i was not feeling very well by then, we went outside to find a seat to sit down and wait for the fountain to start...

This is the first time I see so many people here in Dubai mall lor.. most of the time when I come by during weekends, it is only half as full.. never seen so many people in my life!!!!! Inside or outside the mall.. equally full!

Today's show was a little bit different as they used a different song and had different colour lights too:)

Here is the video of the fountain performance...


Anyway, after tat, we tried to go to the foodcourt cos Ace wanted to eat Mac donalds. But it was so crowded..we gave up. We just dabao via the drive through at the petrol kioks (There are many mac donalds in petrol kiosks here with drive through services) and Max cooked fried noodles for me and him when we got home..

Ace was so tired that he slept through the whole journey home in the car:)

But it was a great day out I guess..

Previous Post: To The Souks We Go